Actually, there are some really good tv movies from the 70s, like Brian's Song. The early to mid-70s was actually a period of some quality tv filming. However, those were done as stand-alone films. TV pilot films were another matter. Some were great, like the Six Million Dollar Man (which had 3 movies, before the regular series began. The Wonder Woman pilot is mostly good (though cheesy).
The problem here was two-fold, Cap was relatively unknown, to the general public (though moreso to Hollywood); and, Marvel had absolutely no say in the production. The tv film went with the premise that Steve Rogers is the son of the WW2 hero (thought they never say that his father was a superhero, just that he had enemies and was a great patriot). They basically didn't have an idea for depicting his abilities, so they pretty much swiped from the Six Million Dollar Man. They designed their own costume, and they didn't have a supervillain. If you just have a run-of-the-mill villain, why do you need a superhero? Marvel begged them to at least fix the costume, which is why he comes out in the second suit (more like the comics, apart from the motorcycle helmet), in the epilogue.
It's bad, but it has its moment. You have to remember, it was the only Cap movie we had, for about 15 years (and that one was even worse), unless you saw the movie serial, and that wasn't really Cap. At least Reb looked the part and it has a coherent, if lackluster story. All you could do was laugh about it, until something better came along. A good laugh elevates a lot.
Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!
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